Texas' elite program is in College Station

Evidence of the buildup to a big game is evident throughout College Station as the setup for ESPN's "Gameday" begins outside Kyle Field, above, and gear exhorting A&M to repeat its 2012 upset of Alabama is selling hotly. less

Evidence of the buildup to a big game is evident throughout College Station as the setup for ESPN's "Gameday" begins outside Kyle Field, above, and gear exhorting A&M to repeat its 2012 upset of Alabama is ... more

Photo: J. Patric Schneider, Freelance

Image 2 of 3

The buildup to a big game is evident throughout College Station as the setup for ESPN's "Gameday" begins, above, and gear exhorts A&M to beat Alabama again. For more photos, go to chron.com/A&Mgameday
Prep less

The buildup to a big game is evident throughout College Station as the setup for ESPN's "Gameday" begins, above, and gear exhorts A&M to beat Alabama again. For more photos, go to chron.com/A&Mgameday ... more

Photo: J. Patric Schneider, Freelance

Image 3 of 3

The buildup to a big game is evident throughout College Station as the setup for ESPN's "Gameday" begins, above, and gear exhorts A&M to beat Alabama again. For more photos, go to chron.com/A&Mgameday
Prep less

The buildup to a big game is evident throughout College Station as the setup for ESPN's "Gameday" begins, above, and gear exhorts A&M to beat Alabama again. For more photos, go to chron.com/A&Mgameday ... more

Photo: J. Patric Schneider, Freelance

Texas' elite program is in College Station

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In the Game of the Century or of the season or of at least Saturday, No. 1 Alabama will play No. 6 Texas A&M in College Station. The University of Texas, the Aggies' former rival, a team formerly featured in big games, will play in Chigaroogarem.

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Not even in College Station can anyone explain why the Aggies still sing that, the Longhorns having already gone not only from the schedule but also college football's perennial elites. There is no evidence they are returning soon.

As Aggies safety Toney Hurd Jr. said on Twitter last weekend, "Texas A&M is the university of Texas."

A&M coach Kevin Sumlin won't go that far. The Aggies won the in-state recruiting battle last season in part because Texas didn't have as many scholarships to offer and, according to most credible recruiting websites, trail the Longhorns marginally for 2014.

Despite some high-profile mistakes, the Longhorns don't have difficulty attracting good players to Austin. It's how they're coached after getting there that's causing the Longhorns difficulty.

Polishing the profile

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Meantime, the Aggies are turning the heads of some of the best high school players with their accomplishments. They beat No. 1 Alabama in Tuscaloosa last season, routed Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl, and finished ranked No. 5 nationally.

"We've got a large number of prospects that are going to be here this weekend," Sumlin said Tuesday. "The move to the SEC has been a boost for us. … We were extremely competitive and won a big game last year. The ability to compete and win in this league has really helped us out in recruiting.

"You don't have a stage like this for this weekend if you're not a competitive program."

ESPN's "College GameDay" will broadcast from A&M's campus Saturday in advance of the 2:30 p.m. kickoff. The game will be nationally televised by CBS.

The network will devote one camera, the Johnny Cam, to quarterback Johnny Manziel, unless Sumlin can talk the producers out of it because he prefers the focus on the overall team.

Good luck. Manziel has graduated from the cover of sports magazines to the cover of this month's Texas Monthly and last week's Time. You can now call him Time's "Manziel of the Year."

According to Sports Illustrated, tickets for the game at Kyle Field were averaging a record $763 on the secondary market Wednesday, beating the previous college football record of $713 in 2011 for Alabama-LSU, the most recent game of the century.

The Longhorns have a history of playing in games of the century - against Alabama, Arkansas, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma and USC.

But they've faced one crisis after another on and off the field since losing to Alabama in the national championship game to conclude the 2009 season.

The latest occurred Sunday, when coach Mack Brown fired defensive coordinator Manny Diaz a day after the No. 16 Longhorns allowed a school-record 550 rushing yards in a 40-21 loss to unranked BYU.

The Longhorns dropped out of the Top 25 this week.

Everything is all right, Brown said Tuesday, because he is fixing it. He also said he was fixing it after the 5-7 finish in 2010 and the 63-21 loss to Oklahoma last season.

Vote of confidence

Athletic director DeLoss Dodds gave Brown another vote of confidence this week in an interview with the Austin American-Statesman.

"Mack's fine," Dodds said. "Mack will know if he should be coaching at Texas or shouldn't be."

Is anyone being held accountable for the Lost Football Program of Texas other than Manny Diaz?

As if the Longhorns needed another distraction, Sports illustrated named the Longhorns' new running backs coach, Larry Porter, as one of the Oklahoma State assistants who paid players. Porter, a coach at OSU from 2002-04, denied it.

No one has made any such allegations against the Longhorns, but the Longhorn Network pre-empted a replay of the Texas-BYU game Sunday for a replay of the women's volleyball match between the Longhorns and Penn State.

The Longhorn Network, as of Wednesday, was still scheduled to televise the football team's game Saturday night against Mississippi.

But there will be no ESPN "GameDay," no CBS, no special cameras, no $763 tickets in Austin. Most of the eyes of Texas will be on College Station.